Black conservatives attack Holder on voter ID laws

Former presidential candidate Herman Cain and former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell have teamed up to respond to Attorney General Eric Holder’s contention that voter ID laws are a ploy to suppress minority votes.

In a new video, entitled “Keep America Free, Mr. Holder,” the pair of black conservatives make the case that protecting the sanctity of the vote and standing up for voter ID laws has nothing to do with race, but is rather about protecting the validity of elections and preventing fraud.

“Americans have fought and died for the right to vote,” Blackwell says while standing in front of pictures of civil rights era protests.

“It is the right of every American to vote without intimidation,” Cain added, standing before footage of the New Black Panther Party standing menacingly in front of a Philadelphia polling precinct on election day 2008. The Department of Justice later dropped voter intimidation charges against the group.

In the video — a project to promote voter ID laws by the American Civil Rights Union and Herman Cain’s Solutions Revolution — Cain went on to question the reasons behind the department’s decision to drop the charges.

“I was responsible for the integrity of the vote,” Blackwell said of his time as secretary of state. “I have serious concerns about this election.”

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“Elections should never be about color,” Cain adds in the video, going on to say that states should not have to sue the federal government in order to preserve voting integrity.

“Tell [Attorney General] Eric Holder to do his job, which is to keep politics out of the Justice Department. And if he’s not willing to protect the integrity of the ballot box, send him home,” the pair urge.